By Nicholas Jason Lopez “Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post. (Aired 3/7/17) Vices By Vipers – The opening video recapped the last month, aka Randy Orton’s “master plan” to sacrifice himself into The […]

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“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.

(Aired 2/21/17)

Kings And Queens

– The opening video recapped the previous night’s Raw contract signing segment for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship match at Fastlane on Mar. 5 between Champion Neville and Gentleman Jack Gallagher. They showed all the important parts, as Neville painted Gallagher as a live caricature of the things people laugh about British culture, to which Gallagher argued that being a gentleman was who he really was and not a part played. In the end, Gallagher got the last laugh as he outlasted Neville in impromptu combat and embarrassed him with William III, his trusty umbrella. Makes sense as Fastlane draws near. Gallagher should get as warm as possible for the belt.

“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.

(Aired 2/20/17)

The Behemoths Collide

– The opening video recapped WWE United States Champion Chris Jericho’s “Festival Of Friendship” that emanated from Las Vegas. To sum it up, it was a millennial rehash of “This Is Your Life” with a showbiz extravaganza theme to showcase Jericho’s appreciation for his best friend. They did a great job as they drove home the emotion and set up the moment perfectly when Jericho didn’t suspect an attack until it was too late. Loved the closeups on WWE Universal Champion Kevin Owens’ sadistic expressions as he betrayed Jericho and was thus, friends no more.

“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.

(Aired 2/14/17)

Blazing Trails

– The opening video recapped last week’s excellent Fatal Five-Way Elimination where it was Gentleman Jack Gallagher who’d go on to become #1 Contender and take on WWE Cruiserweight Champion Neville at Fastlane on Mar. 5. It feels like the right time to go with a tease of Gallagher in a “changing of the guard.”

“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.

(Aired 2/13/17)

Festival Of Friendship

– Raw was in Las Vegas, we had a big WWE Raw Women’s Championship rematch between Champion Charlotte and Bayley and above all else, a “Festival Of Friendship” WWE United States Champion Chris Jericho was throwing for WWE Universal Champion Kevin Owens. Add up all the ingredients and figure out where it can possibly go wrong. Exactly. To start the show, out came Commissioner Stephanie McMahon, which meant we got the old-fashioned 20-minute talking promo. Vintage Raw. She “gave” General Manager Mick Foley “the week off” and emasculated him without his presence this time. She went for the classic hometown cheap pop. Lord. Here comes Roman Reigns. Just why? This “Big Dog” nickname sounds so forced and won’t ever catch on. He demanded Braun Strowman, even though he’s guaranteed to face him at Fastlane on Mar. 5., like bro, can’t you wait? Real world exercise – ask your boss for your vacation and then a month before it approaches, demand it right now. See how that works out for you. From Steph’s point of view, why on earth would she oblige? We’re reminded she’s a heel and gets the crowd worked up for the prospect of it happening and then does the “boss” thing and prevents it because “she cares.” Cue the boos. She does announce that Strowman would face Mark Henry later. That sounds nice. She’s the boss, so she threatened Reigns and teased taking away the FL match and subsequent WrestleMania bonus. Reigns only got more aggressive in his stance, which drew WWE Raw Tag Team Champions, Luke Gallows/Karl Anderson. This can’t be good. They sucked up to Steph and suggested a Handicap match. Why wouldn’t she? Anderson sported a Club shirt that had similar fonts to the classic Bullet Club tee. Oh, subtle copying. Cue a mini-“brawl” where Referees have to pull them apart before we go to break. Let’s get to the match portion of things. Not much to write here, as the “numbers game” ran the pace, though Reigns powered in some offense. For some reason, the Champs ignored requests from the Referee to not beatdown their single opponent and were disqualified. Meh. Reigns fought out of the Magic Killer and then walked away. The Tag Champs don’t look any stronger and neither did Reigns. What exactly was this supposed to be?

“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.

(Aired 2/7/17)

Five For Fighting

– With perhaps the most intriguing match to date in the Cruiserweight Division, we were set to see a Fatal Five-Way Elimination main event between “The Premier Athlete” Tony Nese, Cedric Alexander, TJ Perkins, Noam Dar and Gentleman Jack Gallagher to determine WWE Cruiserweight Champion Neville’s challenger for Fastlane. It all made sense.

If anybody from World Wrestling Entertainment has had an up-and-down career in and out of the ring, it’s Daniel Bryan.

Elevated from “Indie Wrestler Comes To WWE” status in 2010 to an actual main event player in 2014, he went though a journey like none other.

His own “Cinderella Story” occurred between 2013 and WrestleMania XXX where he emerged an Undisputed Champion and married five days later to Brie Bella. It’s literally as perfect as one professional wrestler could dream of, especially one who didn’t fit the “corporate style” of what WWE traditionally spotlights.

How would this all translate in a book? With some help by WWE.com’s Craig Tello, we’d finally get that tell-all where Bryan describes his joyous upbringings and subsequent dream chase, with all the little things in-between.

“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.

(Aired 1/24/17)

Hostilities Renewed

– The opening video replayed the last interaction between WWE Cruiserweight Champion Rich Swann and Neville from Raw. The Champ challenged Neville to come down and the heel tried to get away, but was briefly caught when Swann landed a suicide dive. Neville did squirm away, as this was all buildup to their Royal Rumble encounter.

“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.

(Aired 1/3/17)

The Neville System

– The opening video highlighted last week’s WWE Cruiserweight Champion Rich Swann-Neville main event. Since his rabid heel turn, Neville has aggressively pursued the Title and christened himself the “King Of The Cruiserweights.” We got a more serious Swann, but he was outdone by the angered Neville. Nice production job as we heard the Brit’s promo soundbites from his cocky sit-down interview. Neville downed the Champ with an impactful superplex and assumed to be in line for a future shot.

“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.

(Aired 1/2/17)

The Season Premiere

– The General Manager Mick Foley/WWE Universal Champion Kevin Owens/Chris Jericho/Commissioner Stephanie McMahon opening in-ring segment was a “Raw” way to start the new year – 20-minute talking segment. Woot woot. Anyways, Foley sported shorter hair in a cut that didn’t look finished. We have to take him seriously now? He poked fun at his lack of ability to remember the city he was in, as he used it for a cheap laugh. Owens/Jericho made claims that Foley abused his power and criticized that Seth Rollins was rewarded for his deviant behavior. In turn, Foley booked the first episode of The Kevin Owens show as a talk show where Goldberg would be his first guest. Steph’s portion involved some brief disagreements with Foley, but she stood by him and subsequently booked Jericho to face WWE United States Champion Roman Reigns for the Title. She added that if Reigns was counted out or disqualified, he’d lose the belt. Afterwards, she brought up how “sick” she was that SmackDown Live beat them in the ratings last week (interesting) and booked Owens against Rollins, where the loser would be banned from ringside during the US Title match. Guess now it can be a “ratings war” since SD Live beat Raw for once, but wouldn’t that be something for Raw to stay away from? It’s as if they invited people to skip them and watch SD instead. Anyways, good hype for later segments and the Owens-Reigns WWE Universal Championship Royal Rumble match where Jericho would be hung in a shark cage.